Date | July 10, 2016 |
---|---|
Time | 4:20 a.m. EST (approximate) |
Location | Bloomingdale neighborhood (Ward 5, Washington, D.C.) |
Cause | Shooting |
Outcome | Under investigation by D.C. police |
Inquiries | Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia |
Coroner | Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Washington D.C. |
Seth Conrad Rich (January 3, 1989 – July 10, 2016) was an American employee for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who was fatally shot in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[1][2][3] As of May 2017[update] the shooting is under investigation by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.[4]
The murder spawned several right-wing conspiracy theories about the crime, including the groundless claim that Rich had been involved with the leaked DNC emails in 2016, which runs contrary to U.S. intelligence that concluded the leaked DNC emails were part of 2016 U.S. elections interference.[5][6][7] These theories were debunked by law enforcement,[5][6] as well as by fact-checking websites like PolitiFact.com,[6][8] Snopes.com,[9] and FactCheck.org.[5] The fabrications were described as fake news and falsehoods by The New York Times,[10] Los Angeles Times,[11] and The Washington Post.[12]
Rich's parents condemned the conspiracy theorists and said that these individuals were exploiting their son's death for political gain, with their spokesperson calling them "sociopaths" and "disgusting".[13][14][15] They requested a retraction and apology from Fox News,[16] and sent a cease and desist letter to the investigator Fox News used.[6][15][16] The investigator admitted he had no evidence to back up his claims, and Fox News issued a retraction.[5][6][17]
Rich grew up in Omaha, Nebraska.[18][19][20] He volunteered for the Nebraska Democratic Party, interned for Senator Ben Nelson, was active in Jewish outreach,[21] and worked with the United States Census Bureau.[22][23] In 2011, he graduated from Creighton University with a degree in political science.[24][23] He moved to Washington, D.C. to work for pollster, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.[23] In 2014 he began working for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as the Voter Expansion Data Director. One of his tasks at the DNC was the development of a computer application to help voters locate polling stations.[2][25][26]
On Sunday, July 10, 2016, Rich was shot about a block from his apartment in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[27][28][29]
Earlier that night he had been at Lou's City Bar, a sports pub 1.8 miles from his apartment, in Columbia Heights, where he was a regular customer. He left when the bar was closing, at about 1:30 or 1:45 a.m.[30][31] Police were alerted to gunfire at 4:20 a.m. by an automated gunfire locator.[29][32] Within approximately one minute after the gun shots, police officers found Rich with multiple gunshot wounds, in a conscious and breathing state.[33] He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died.[34][35][36] According to police, he died from two shots to the back[27][28] and may have been killed in an attempted robbery, noting that the neighborhood had recently been plagued by robberies.[27] Rich's mother told NBC's Washington affiliate WRC-TV, "There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything... They didn't finish robbing him, they just took his life."[37] The police told the family they had found a surveillance videotape showing a glimpse of the legs of two people who could possibly be the killers.[30]
On the day after the shooting, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement mourning his loss and praising Rich's work to support voter rights.[32][38] Two days after the shooting, Hillary Clinton spoke of his death during a speech advocating limiting the availability of guns.[2][19]
In October 2016, a plaque and bike rack outside the DNC headquarters were dedicated to Rich's memory.[38] In September 2016, Rich's parents and girlfriend appeared on the syndicated television show Crime Watch Daily to speak about the murder case.[39][40] In February 2017, the Beth El Synagogue in Omaha named after Rich an existing scholarship that helps Jewish children attend summer camps.[41]
The Rich family accepted the pro bono public relations services of Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman in September 2016.[11] The Rich family and Burkman held a joint press conference on the murder in November 2016.[11][42] In January 2017, Burkman launched an advertising campaign in Northwest D.C. searching for information regarding Seth Rich's death. This included billboard advertisements and canvassing with flyers.[43][44] In late February, Burkman told media outlets he had a lead that the Russian government was involved in Rich's death,[45] and the Rich family distanced itself from Burkman.[46] On March 19, 2017, Rich's brother, Aaron, started a GoFundMe campaign to try to raise $200,000 for private investigation, public outreach activities, and a reward fund.[47] On March 24, Burkman started "The Profiling Project" with some forensics students at George Washington University, an independent investigative attempt to solve the murder of Seth Rich.[48][49] On June 20, 2017, the Profiling Project published a report which called the conspiracy theories surrounding the death unfounded, and speculated that it was caused by a serial killer.[50]
According to the Rich family spokesman, a Fox News contributor and financial adviser Ed Butowsky contacted the Rich family and recommended having former homicide detective and Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler investigate Seth Rich's murder. The family gave Wheeler permission to investigate, though they did not hire him.[15][51] Instead, Wheeler's investigation was financed by Butowsky himself.[52] NBC News reported that Butowsky initially denied involvement in the case, though he later told CNN he was involved in Wheeler's investigation by offering financial support.[53][54] Butowsky told Dallas News that he advised the Rich family to hire a private investigator, and that they then chose to hire Wheeler.[53] After Wheeler asserted links between Rich and Wikileaks in a Fox affiliate interview on May 15, 2017—an assertion he later backtracked from[55]—the family spokesman said that the family regretted working with Wheeler.[4]
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC) posted its customary reward of $25,000 for information about the death.[2][33]
On August 9, 2016, WikiLeaks announced a $20,000 reward for information about Rich's murder leading to a conviction,[56][57][58] although Rich's family said they were unable to verify this reward offer.[59] When making the offer for the reward, WikiLeaks said their offer should not be taken as implying Rich had been involved in leaking information to them.[2]
In November 2016, Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman stated he was personally offering a $100,000 reward in addition to those announced by the police department and WikiLeaks, and he added another $5,000 to his offer in December and another $25,000 in January.[59][60][30] Burkman said he hoped the money would help "get to the truth of what happened here and will either debunk the conspiracy theories or validate them".[61]
American businessman and investor, Martin Shkreli offered $100,000 for information leading to the murderer.[62]
The murder stoked right-wing conspiracy theories that arose days after Rich's death,[63][64][65] including an unsubstantiated claim that his murder was connected to the DNC email leak of 2016.[4] A post on Twitter before Rich's memorial service, originated the idea that he was killed related to a political assassination.[63] Subsequently the conspiracy theory was publicized on Reddit and then on the website Heat Street, later popularized by Donald Trump political adviser Roger Stone via his Twitter account.[63] Reddit users attempted to tie the homicide to prior "Clinton Body Count" conspiracy theories.[64] On July 13, 2016, conspiracy website WhatDoesItMean.com promoted a similar conspiracy theory.[65]
Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham said the police had no information suggesting a connection between Rich's death and data obtained by WikLeaks.[2] Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, seemed to imply a connection when, unbidden, he talked about the case on a Dutch news program.[30] People who worked with Rich said he was not an expert computer hacker helping to leak information to foreigners. Andrew Therriault, a data scientist who had mentored Rich, said although he had recently been working as a programmer, this "wasn't his background", and another co-worker said Rich was very upset when he heard hackers associated with Russian intelligence services had broken into the DNC computers and could be interfering with the election.[30]
These conspiracy theories were promoted by Mike Cernovich, Sean Hannity, Geraldo Rivera, Kim Dotcom, Paul Joseph Watson, Brittany Pettibone, Newt Gingrich, Jack Posobiec, and others.[66][67][68] Conservatives and members of the alt-right, along with certain commentators on Fox News, featured coverage of the conspiracy theories during the same time period in which other news outlets reported new revelations about President Trump firing FBI director Comey, revealing highly sensitive information to Russia’s Foreign Minister and Russia’s Ambassador to the U.S., and having urged Comey to drop the FBI investigation of former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn. According to Haaretz, the timing of the these broadcasts about the Seth Rich conspiracy theory was most likely intended by Pro-Trump outlets as a distraction from the negative news concerning President Trump.[69][failed verification]
The same venues that fomented the false Pizzagate conspiracy theory helped to promulgate the Seth Rich murder conspiracy theories,[70][71][11] and each shared similar features.[72][73][74] Both were promoted by individuals ascribing to far-right politics,[75] and by campaign officials and individuals appointed to senior-level national security roles by Donald Trump.[76][77][78] After prior coordination on Facebook, each theory was spread on Twitter by automated bots using a branded hashtag, with the goal of becoming a trending topic.[70] Both the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and the Seth Rich murder conspiracy theory were spread in the sub reddit forum promoting Donald Trump, called "The Donald".[79] In both conspiracy theories, the promoters attempted to shift the burden of proof — asking others to attempt to disprove their claims, without citing substantiated evidence.[52] Slate called the claims about Seth Rich: a "PizzaGate-like conspiracy theory surrounding Rich’s death",[80] The Huffington Post described it as "the 'alt-right' idiocy of Pizzagate all over again",[74] NPR's David Folkenflik said Fox News coverage of it "evokes the pizza-gate terrible allegations utterly unfounded",[81] and Margaret Sullivan wrote for The Washington Post: "The Seth Rich lie has become the new Comet Ping Pong ... Crazy, baseless and dangerous."[82]
The conspiracy theories have been debunked by law enforcement,[5][6] as well as by fact-checking websites like PolitiFact.com,[6][8] Snopes.com,[9] and FactCheck.org.[5]
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia described the murder as related to a bungled attempted at theft.[5] Police further debunked claims by Rod Wheeler, and made a statement saying: "the assertions put forward by Mr. Wheeler are unfounded."[5] The FBI told PolitiFact.com that the MPD was investigating the homicide.[8]
A representative of the Rich's family members, Brad Bauman, disputed the notion of conspiracy theorists that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in looking into the homicide.[5] Bauman stated: "The FBI is not now and has never been a party to this investigation."[5]
FactCheck.org analyzed statements by Newt Gingrich related to the conspiracy theory, where Gingrich said Rich "apparently was assassinated" subsequent to "having given WikiLeaks something like … 53,000 [DNC] emails and 17,000 attachments".[5] FactCheck.org determined this claim was "unsupported" and determined "there's no evidence for his claim."[5]
PolitiFact.com rated the assertion Rich gave emails to WikiLeaks as a "baseless claim".[6] They called the claim "an unfounded conspiracy theory".[6] PolitiFact.com analyzed the claims by Gingrich and rated their false nature as "Pants on Fire!"[6] PolitiFact.com concluded: "Gingrich and others are talking about an unfounded conspiracy theory as if it's a matter of fact. It is far from it. We rate his claim Pants on Fire."[6] In a separate analysis, PolitiFact.com concluded: "There's no evidence there's any link between Rich and WikiLeaks. The FBI has indirectly denied investigating the case, which Washington police consider a robbery gone wrong."[8]
Snopes.com looked into the matter and stated: "We were able to confirm the FBI is not investigating Rich's murder — it is an MPD investigation... All claims made by Mr. Wheeler are false and take fake news to a whole new level. The family deserves better and everyday MPD continues to work diligently to solve this case."[9] Snopes rated the claim "DNC staffer Seth Rich sent 'thousands of leaked e-mails' to WikiLeaks before he was murdered." as "False".[9]
The fabrications were described as fake news and falsehoods by The New York Times.[10] The New York Times cited the conspiracy theories as an example of the persistence of false claims, concluding: "fake news dies hard".[10] The Los Angeles Times called the conspiracy theories "unsubstantiated rumors".[11]
The Washington Post cited the conspiracy theories as an example of the power of fake news to spread virally online.[12] The paper used the example as a case study of the persistence of fake news, and found that television news media can be a soft target for such false stories.[12] The Washington Post further found that the proliferation of fake news via Facebook had decreased, but remained powerful on Twitter due to spread via online bots.[12] They found that the conspiracy theories with the largest potential to spread on the Internet were those that held attraction for both the alt-right movements and the political left wing.[12] The Washington Post concluded that even if a particular false story had been sufficiently debunked, such fact-checking was unable to stop the spread of the falsehoods online.[12]
On May 15, 2017, Fox 5 DC (WTTG) reported the uncorroborated and later largely retracted[83] claims by Rod Wheeler, a Fox News contributor and former homicide detective, that there was evidence Seth Rich had contacted WikiLeaks and that law enforcement were covering this up;[84][83] claims that were never independently verified by Fox.[85] The next day, Fox News published a lead story on its website and provided extensive coverage on its cable news channel about what it said were Wheeler's uncorroborated claims about the murder of Seth Rich.[69][86][87] In reporting these claims, the Fox News report re-ignited conspiracy theories about the killing.[72][88][89] According to NPR, within a day of the original Fox report, "Google searches for Rich had overtaken searches for James Comey, even amid continuous news about the former FBI director's conversations with Trump."[52] The Washington Post noted Fox News chose to lead with this story at a time when most other media outlets were covering allegations President Trump leaked intelligence to Russian officials.[86]
Other news organizations revealed Wheeler was a Donald Trump supporter, a paid Fox News contributor, and according to NBC News had "developed a reputation for making outlandish claims, such as one appearance on Fox News in 2007 in which he warned that underground networks of pink pistol-toting lesbian gangs were raping young women".[88][90][4] The Washington Post noted it is "rare for a news organization to have such a close relationship with the people it is covering", as Wheeler was "playing three roles at once: as a Fox source, as a paid contributor to the network and as a supposedly independent investigator of the murder".[72] When Wheeler appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News shows, these multiple roles were not disclosed to viewers.[72] Seth Rich's family had hired Wheeler to investigate Rich's death; after Wheeler's Fox News interview on May 15, 2017, Brad Bauman, a communications professional and pro bono spokesman for the Rich family, said the family was asking Fox News and the Fox affiliate retract their reports and apologize for damaging their son's legacy.[4]
The family spokesperson, the Washington, D.C. police department, the Washington, D.C. mayor's office, the FBI, and law enforcement sources familiar with the case all disputed Wheeler's claims.[88][91] The family said, "We are a family who is committed to facts, not fake evidence that surfaces every few months to fill the void and distract law enforcement and the general public from finding Seth's murderers."[88] Bauman criticized Fox News for its reporting, alleging that the outlet was motivated by a desire to deflect attention from the Trump-Russia story: "I think there's a very special place in hell for people that would use the memory of a murder victim in order to pursue a political agenda."[9]
Later that day, Wheeler told CNN he had no evidence that Rich had contacted Wikileaks.[83] Wheeler claimed that Fox had presented his quotes misleadingly and that he only learned about the possible existence of the evidence from a Fox News reporter.[83][52] Despite this, Sean Hannity's show and Fox & Friends continued to promote the conspiracy theory for the remainder of the week.[92][93] Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Geraldo Rivera took part in spreading the conspiracy.[93][94][95] Hannity had on his program Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, who said the organization filed Freedom of Information Act requests for documents from Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, and from the Metropolitan Police.[96] Sean Hannity furthermore promoted the uncorroborated claims of Kim Dotcom, a New Zealand resident sought by the United States on fraud charges who claimed without evidence that Rich had been in contact with him before his death.[97] Fox News host Julie Roginsky was critical of the conspiracy theory peddlers, stating on Twitter and on her television show: "The exploitation of a dead man whose family has begged conspiracy theorists to stop is really egregious. Please stop."[98] Fox News was also criticized by conservative outlets, such as the Weekly Standard,[99] National Review,[100][101] and Red State,[102][103][104] and conservative columnists, such as Jennifer Rubin,[105] Michael Gerson,[106] and John Podhoretz.[107]
On May 19, 2017, an attorney for the Rich family sent a cease and desist letter to Wheeler.[16]
Fox News issued a retraction of the story on May 23, 2017 and removed the original article, and did not apologize or specify what went wrong or how it did so.[17][108][109] After this, Sean Hannity, one of Fox News's biggest stars, who pushed the theory, remained unapologetic, saying "I retracted nothing" and "I am not going to stop trying to find the truth."[110][97][109] In their May 23 statement, Fox News said,
The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.[110]
The Poynter Institute said that the retraction was "woefully inadequate", noting that,
The two-paragraph statement, published under the "politics" category on the network's website, doesn't say what about Fox News' reporting was inaccurate (that its original source backed away from his claim that he had information showing Rich was in touch with Wikileaks). It doesn't replace the bad information with accurate information (that police believe Rich was murdered during a robbery). It doesn't specify who in the organization is being held accountable. And the correction doesn't appear on the original story to explain why it was removed, nor has it been shared in the on-air forums where the inaccurate story was promoted. As of this writing, the original URL displays a 404 error. Fox News isn't even acknowledging to people who click the link to the original story that it's been retracted.[111]
On May 23, 2017, Sean Hannity stated on his television program that he would cease discussing the issue.[112] Hannity said his decision to cease commenting on the matter was related to the family of the murder victim: "Out of respect for the family's wishes, for now, I am not discussing the matter at this time."[112] In the same statement wherein he promised to cease discussion of the topic, he vowed to pursue facts in the future: "I promise you I am not going to stop trying to find the truth."[112] Several advertisers including Crowne Plaza Hotels, Cars.com, Leesa Mattress, USAA, Peloton and Casper Sleep pulled their marketing from his program on Fox News.[113][114][115] Crowne Plaza Hotels later said that it was not their policy to advertise on political commentary shows, and had not been aware of their sponsorship of the show.[116] USAA soon returned to advertising on Fox News after receiving customer input.[117]
In May 2017, Aaron issued a statement saying "We simply want to find his killers and grieve. Instead, we are stuck having to constantly fight against non-facts, baseless allegations, and general stupidity to defend my brother's name and legacy."[4]
The family spokesperson said "At this point, only people with transparent political agendas or sociopaths are still perpetuating Seth Rich conspiracies."[118]
His parents authored a piece in The Washington Post on May 23, 2017 titled: "We're Seth Rich's parents. Stop politicizing our son's murder," in which they wrote:
We are asking you to please consider our feelings and words. There are people who are using our beloved Seth's memory and legacy for their own political goals, and they are using your outrage to perpetuate our nightmare. We ask those purveying falsehoods to give us peace, and to give law enforcement the time and space to do the investigation they need to solve our son's murder.[13]